Even though October is usually breast cancer awareness month, breast cancer diagnosis can be given at any time. Women facing the diagnosis of breast cancer have traditionally sought out other survivors near them for personal advice and experiences. In this internet age the reality is that many of us socialize on-line, we meet friends, plan events, host get togethers, share ideas, fall in love and mourn those that have passed. Humans are social creatures, but we are also technological, we have created new ways to meet more and more people just like us.

*Aside from editor Corrina–if you love her descriptions, her books are just that funny, too.

The imagination going into these entries are great!

Here’s Jenny’s explanation of the mouse amigarumi pictured above:

This time, the technical [challenge] was about angles. The Discworld’s supercomputer is called Hex and it has its own mouse, so I made Hex’s mouse, sitting on a hexagon in homage to its boss.

If you want to take a quick trip through the teams’ most recent entries, Ravelry members can visit the Nerd Wars project site. Unfortunately, this year’s tournament is closed, but you can stay tuned for when next year’s kicks off!

For the Prehistory challenge, I went back to the way life started in Discworld (somebody threw an egg and cress sandwich into the first tidepool) and made The Egg-and-Cress-from-the-Beginning-of-Time scarf. Photo and description by Jenny Crusie, used with permission.

Last month, for the Team Spirit challenge, we were supposed to make a gift for somebody in our nerdery, and UU's unity points were for using cheese. So I made Glenda Sugarbean's Cheese Wedges shawl as a gift from the wizards to their favorite cook; since the shawl looks like cheese wedges it also got points for Unity. Photo and description by Jenny Crusie, used with permission

Jenny of Nerd Wars Team UU, the Discworld Team, made the supercomputer Hex's Mouse, paying homage to the boss. Photo: Jennie Crusie, used with permission

The color of magic in Discworld is octarine, described as a purplish yellow-green which is basically two complementary colors so the human eye can't see them, but the wizards and witches can. I made a shawl of reddish-purple and yellow-ish green and then put the two colors together so that parts of the shawl look gray, the stuff humans see, and the rest is what wizards and witches see. Photo and description by Jenny Crusie, used with permission

The Nerd Culture challenge was Revenge of the Nerds: you had to make something from some other Nerd's culture to refute the idea that nerds never communicate with anyone. I'd never seen the early Dr.Whos, so I went back and made a scarf for the Sixth Doctor and then tied it to Discworld for team points. Photo and description by Jenny Crusie.

It was a few months ago that Google started cracking down and enforcing their real names policy on their new social media network, Google +. There was a lot of fear going around as stories of people losing access to all their Google accounts because of using a pseudonym on Google +.

The talk of the controversy has died down, but I’m sure this is still on the back of many people’s minds as Google + is now open to the public and gaining users as time goes on. But apparently Google did listen to the outcry and announced that they are going to work on supporting other forms of identity. At this point though, they haven’t explained how they are going to deal with pseudonyms.

This may mean the end of the Google + Nymwars, but it is too early to see. I know that I’ll be watching this story closely since I’d rather use a pseudonym on Google + than my real name. You can read more about this story here.

If you are using the Google+ social network, then you probably have heard the stories of people having their Google+ accounts, along with all their other Google accounts, locked. This has caused quite a stir throughout the internet as well as causing a lot of fear and speculation.

I’m one of those people who is afraid. I have a secret you see. Mandy isn’t really my name. Legally it is Amanda. But I’m not very fond of that name and I hardly use it at all. I did think about changing it legally to Mandy when I changed my name after I was married, but opted not to. And obviously the Chaos part of my name is also not a legal name.

When I first joined Google+, I had my Chaos in front of my real name. There are a lot of people who just know me as Chaos Mandy, and I figured that it would be an easy way to let people know it is me. After the news came out of people having name issues, I quickly changed it. I’m not so concerned about getting blocked out of Google+, but I am concerned that it would translate to my Gmail account which is my main email.

There is a lot of concern due to pen names, using maiden names and even using common nicknames like my Mandy. Google did put out a statement that they would going to warn people and then give them four days to fix their name in Google+. Despite this, there are still reports of people getting banned from their Google services without a grace period.

For me, it’s really disappointing because Google+ is really a great social networking site. But I think all of this name drama is going to make people be wary about even trying it.

Today I want to share an assortment of Google+ tips I hope you’ll find useful. Like everyone else at this brand-spanking-new social network, I’m learning as I go. The more I settle in at G+, the more I love it.

1. Fill in the “Occupation” field on your profile.

I talked about this in the profiles post, but it’s such an important tip I’m going to mention it again. The text you enter in that box will pop up whenever a Google+ user hovers the cursor over your name. Think “bio note,” not “occupation.” A descriptive entry will help the people you follow decide whether to follow you back, and what circle to put you in.

2. Use email notifications as a searchable archive.

When you first sign up for Google+, you may find that your email inbox is quickly flooded with notifications of comments and followers. If you’re like me, your first impulse may be to turn off email notifications (which you can do easily in your G+ account settings). But I’ve found a better tack is to filter these notifications into their own folder in my email account. This way, I can search my Gmail any time I want to find a specific post.

3. Don’t put people in more than one “reading” circle.

In Part One of this series, I talked about the difference between “reading” circles and “sharing” circles. Reading circles are the people you want to read (I know, it sounds obvious). Sharing circles are groups of people you want to send certain kinds of posts to. These grouping may certainly overlap—some of your friends might fit into many of your sharing circles. For example, my friend Phoebe is in my Homeschoolers circle, my Special Needs Parenting circle, my Meta circle (where I yak at length about G+ itself), and my Pix Recipients circle, where I might share photos of my kids that I don’t necessarily want on my public profile web. All of those are sharing circles.

But Phoebe—like everyone else I follow—is in only one of my reading circles. This is my time management strategy. I’ve created four main reading circles with no overlap between them. When I want to read posts at Google+, I don’t click on my Stream—it’s too overwhelming. I check my reading circles one at a time, responding to posts as I go.

My reading circles are grouped by relationship: what context I know someone in, and how well we know each other. But here’s another way of grouping you might want to consider:

4. Try arranging your “reading” circles according to how often you want to read people.

This tip comes from my friend Amy Carney, who has created circles for people she wants to read “Always,” “Often,” “Sometimes,” and “Never.” That sounds like a great method of time management on a social network that has the potential to be a massive time suck. (I mean that lovingly. I may have to enter a Google+ 12-Step program in order to meet my next book deadline.)

5. Remember that “public” is really public.

Any post you send to “public” will be visible to anyone on the web, whether they are G+ users or not. Every post (public and private) gets its own permalink—click the gray timestamp to see it.

It helps to think of public posts as blog posts; essentially, they’re the same thing—just as Twitter updates are (very short) blog posts. You’re writing something and sharing it openly on the internet. Google+, with its lack of character limits, G+ allows for both thoughtful long-form posting and short notes. That’s one of its best features: its versatility.

6. Leave comments, answer comments, and get engaged!

On G+, you can follow anyone (just like on Twitter). If someone you follow has shared a post publicly and has kept comments enabled, feel free to jump in with a comment—just as you would on someone’s blog. Don’t feel awkward if you don’t know the writer. By choosing to post publicly, that person is inviting a response. Although I do have the various sharing circles I mentioned, 90% of my Google+ posts are public. I love the dialogue, the lively exchange of ideas.

7. Mute a post that gets too noisy.

If a post is getting a lot of comments and keeps popping up in your stream, click the gray arrow (top right of post) and select “mute this post.” That’ll make it go invisible.

8. Label private posts “private.”

I picked up this tip from my aforementioned friend Phoebe. Like me, she has a couple of circles for writing to small groups of friends—but like me, most of her G+ posts are public. When she writes to a small circle, she puts a little label on top—”private,” perhaps, or the name of the circle—so you know that what you’re reading is aimed at a more intimate group.

Here’s an example:

I mean, I wouldn’t want my husband to think I was hinting for just anyone to come shower me with candy.

9. Click the word “limited” to see who a post has been sent to.

To be honest, this feature wigs me out a little bit. Circle privacy is one of Google+’s most lauded features: no one will ever see the names of your circles, or who’s in what circle. Except…if a post says “limited” at the top, that means it was sent to one or more circles, and you’re in one of those circles. If you click on the word “limited,” you’ll see the avatars of up to 21 of the people in the circle(s) that post is visible to. If you hover the mouse over an avatar, the person’s name will pop up.

Basically this means you can see who is in a circle with you—just not the name of the circle. I think this is a really important privacy issue to know. (I didn’t know about it when I wrote my privacy post last week!) Which brings me to:

10. Click the “user feedback” button in the lower right of your G+ screen and let the Google team know how you feel!

The network is still in beta, and there are buggy bits, for sure. But the Google crew has been wonderfully responsive to user feedback, and corrections and improvements have already begun to roll out. Visit the “known issues” page for a look at kinks the Google crew is trying to work out. The platform is getting better all the time. I can’t wait to see what new features they have in store for us.

Finding people to follow on Google+

• If you click on your Circles tab, you’ll see a “Find and Invite” tab. I’ve heard varying reports of how useful this feature is at present. For me, it’s been great. The suggested users seem to be a combination of people I know and we have mutual friends who’ve put us both in circles, and names that are new to me but are in fields related to those of people I already follow.

Tip: I created a “New to me” circle which I fill with about 10-12 people at a time. I check in on this circle at least once a day, and if a voice grabs me, I may move that person to a circle I keep up with more often—Following, or Acquaintances (until I know the person better), or one of my topic-themed circles. This has been a fun way to encounter some interesting new writers.

• If you use Gmail, your contacts will be automatically imported to Google+. My Gmail contacts show up at the bottom of that “Find and Invite” window. Yahoo and Hotmail users may import their contacts as well. (You can even import your Facebook contacts via a roundabout route: Facebook to Yahoo to Gmail to Google+. This YouTube clip shows you how.)

Tip: Remember that you can include non-Google+ users in anything you post on G+. Add an email address in the Share window. (This is a great way to include, say, grandparents who’ve been missing out on the photos and hilarious kid quotes you post on Facebook.)

Tip: Make it easy for friends to find you by filling in your profile page with lots of details! The more you share there, the easier you’ll be to connect with.

• Explore your friends’ circles. Not everyone chooses to display the “who’s in your circles” widget on his or her profile page, but plenty of people do. Visit your friends’ profiles and (if they display the widget) take a gander at whom they’re following. (Don’t worry—no one will ever see the names of anyone else’s circles.)

Tip: Many G+ users are helping other people connect by posting directories on their “About” pages. For example, on my About page, I share the link of my Kidlitosphere directory: Google+ users who are children’s book & YA writers/illustrators/bloggers/librarians/etc. I’ve also included a list of other people’s G+ directories for homeschoolers, poets, steampunk enthusiasts, and more. Add your name to one of these directories and have fun exploring them for new folks to follow.

• Don’t forget to invite friends the old-fashioned way—drag them along! Look for the little red invitation button in the right-hand sidebar.

There is a new law trying to be passed in the Tennessee state government that would prohibit teaching about homosexuality in public school. George Takei has an unusual solution if this bill does pass.

The so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill has been getting a lot of attention in the press lately. This bill would prevent teachers from teaching about homosexuality in public schools. The reason for this, as stated by Republican Senate sponsor Stacey Campfield of Knoxville is because “homosexuals don’t naturally reproduce.” As of May 20, 2011, this bill has passed the TN Senate and will be going on the House.

George Takei, who is best known as Mr. Sulu from the original Star Trek series has started a web campaign urging that if the word ‘gay’ is going to be outlawed, that all people need to do is just say Takei instead. This web campaign has gotten a large following on many social networking sites, especially with the new “It’s OK to be Takei!” logo.

On my Facebook, so many of my friends have added the logo to their user pictures as support of George Takei. There is also a new webstore where you can buy products, such as t-shirts and buttons with the logo on it.

I do think it should be noted that the actual word ‘gay’ is not going to be made against the law, which is really a misconception with the bill. Gay does also mean happy, so if you used it in this way you wouldn’t be breaking the law, if it passes.